Thursday, 10 August 2017

The Boxler - Packing box plane

For years I have wanted to make a plane from an RC plane polystyrene packing box.

In the recent Hobby King sale I bought a Bix3, so here was my opportunity to give this project a go.

For speed and simplicity I decided to make a simple 3 channel motor glider with no ailerons. I covered the foam with packing tape and used fibre reinforced tape like spars on the wing and fuselage. I also decided to try a flat wing with no airfoil and dihedral tips.

This video shows the build from start to finish.

Here's the maiden flight which went better than expected.

I then made a hot-wire cut Clark Z airfoil wing to compare to the flat wing.

The airfoil wing had a much better glide slope and smoother flight performance.